Winter Agony
Rock/Goth/Metal Band Formed in Kentucky in 2005.
Ruby- Vocals
Phreaque- Drums
Rayne-Guitar
Kage- Bass
AI aspect- They do use AI for creating Music Videos for their songs, they also use AI for mixing and mastering along with Reaper and other DAW consoles for that purpose. Ruby (The Vocalist for Winter Agony) Is AI. She has been extensively crafted to be exactly what the band sees the perfect vocalist for them would be. This allows creation to move forward without getting road blocked by singer drama. Please understand, they are not the people who just click “Create” and roll with AI. Every song, every word, every change up is implemented 100% buy the band. We record music tracks analog, and we load them into the creation suite to mix down and form the songs. It is all written by Winter Agony. AI is a tool by which we use to overcome odds that we just simply do not have time to mess with anymore.
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The core members are Michael Short (Rayne), Mike McManus (Phreaque) and Travis Beamon(Kage). The concept of Winter Agony started when Kage and Phreaque were working together at a Video Rental store back in 2005. Kage being a bass player was just getting out of a previous band and mentioned he was needing a drummer. Phreaque, spoke up and said “I am a drummer”. Well mind you Phreaque is paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. So, when he spoke up and said he was a drummer, Kage was intrigued. They began sharing influences and what they wanted a band to look and feel like. They made plans to “Jam out” that next weekend and see what came of it. Needless to say, Kage was absolutely blown away with the technical drumming skills of Phreaque and the two began writing what would become future songs on day one. It was like it was meant to be. Skipping ahead a few weeks, the two were in the hunt for a guitarist. Kage went into a yahoo chat room one evening and started to talk about music and looking for a guitar player and hit it off with someone in there who had said they were looking and wanted to come and jam. This happened on Oct 23 2005. Rayne drove up; to hang out with them and on day one they wrote the song known as “My Mind” that day. Needless to say, everything clicked again and now there were 3.
They went on writing and recording together. Auditioning singers like crazy, never really settled on one or another. When they would find one, they liked it ended up being such a chore that it just wasn’t worth the headache. For the longest time Rayne would do the vocals because they lost all patience trying to get a singer that didn’t have to be handled with kid gloves, or someone that could actually sing the songs as they were written. They started tracking with just the 3. Kage always saw himself a lyricist first, bassist second. He loves the songwriting aspect of a band. Very early on we had tracks recorded such as “My Mind, Chained, Agony, Never Wake, Burning Bridges, Mati Di Nol, stranded” They knew they had something really cool and unique.
“I personally want to reach out and thank everyone for checking us out. We have been working very hard on material to get it up to par with todays standards. One thing I promise you, we will never lie to you, we will never mislead you. We just love music; we love creating the art of music and we love giving a voice to the voiceless in many ways. Thank you, please enjoy we do have a ton of stuff in the works. Stick around” - Kage
- Metal Chronicles -
Welcome to the world of Winter Agony, formed in the heart of Kentucky in 2005. As a collective of passionate musicians, we share a narrative of resilience and dedication to our craft. Our music speaks from personal experiences, drawing listeners into a realm of introspection and emotion. With our reunion, we are excited to unveil new tracks that leverage cutting-edge AI technology for innovative music videos and vocal performances, ensuring we maintain our artistic vision while navigating the evolving music landscape. Join us on this journey as we redefine heavy metal and connect with our fans on a deeper level.
Moving forward, Life happened. Everything went on hold for a very long time. Careers took over for Kage and Rayne. Rayne had moved to take a job to support his family. Kage opened up a business to work to have a family. To make a very long story short, 20yrs went by and now they are all back together. Same three, little bit older but the same drive to create music. Now, with the tools to make it happen. They currently are taking their previous stuff and mastering it for release. They will be getting together regularly again and writing new material for future releases. Just like old times, Difference now though is that they do not have to deal with pettiness, managers, bookers, venues, travel, etc. None of that can get in the way now. They have total control of Their own stuff. They all are still very much driven to make new material and thought-provoking lyrics. We say things out loud that sometimes people are scared to say. Everything you hear from Winter Agony comes from real life experiences in some way shape or form.
